The Butterfly Plague
by Powdered Candy
Summary: The message said to take shelter immediately. And nobody did. Now, stranded with only a few of her friends, Luka is forced to fight for her life as a sudden and deadly virus eats its way across the globe. There's only one rule to this new world, and that is survival of the fittest. Not everyone is going to make it out alive.
1. The Beginning of the End

**Warnings: ****Violence, character death and foul language.**

**Disclaimer: I don't own Vocaloid.**

* * *

**x .:: Chapter 1 ~ The Beginning of the End ::. x**

**x**

The TV program ended.

Frowning, Luka idly took the remote in her hand and glanced down to switch over. The next few channels were either boring as hell documentaries, repeated news from last week or talk shows. None of them were appealing enough to watch, but instead of turning the TV off, Luka merely lowered the volume and flipped open the magazine on the couch's arm. Studying for the upcoming exams didn't seem remotely interesting, now that she'd found an interesting column.

She smiled, imagining the others in her class taking notes like the brainwashed fools they were.

Not that Luka herself was that special. Simply the average pink-haired high schooler obsessed with gossip and music. Oh yes, she'd even started a band with some of her friends, also musically talented with good voices. The only strange thing was that they swapped lead vocals very often, considering some of them sounded better singing certain songs than others. Not that they were particularly on her mind at the moment.

Just as she was about to move on to the next pop star's tragic story, the TV flickered gently, distorting her reading light.

Angrily snapping her magazine shut, she grabbed the remote and pressed the power button. Instead of turning off, the TV remained on, flickering with the occasional glitch across the show that was playing, a talk show. It continued for a moment, the voices warping into lower tones until the bright colors of an interruption shone through, a loud '_bleep_' piercing the air. It was far louder than what Luka had set the volume to.

She began to mash the power button after the noise was really starting to annoy her. Nothing was working, so she threw her magazine aside and stood up. Maybe turning the TV off by the wall was the only option to shutting it up. Well, it was until the noise ceased. The colorful stripes remained, and lit up the room quite brightly. Luka stared at it for a few seconds, glaring at the screen. It was kind of creepy how the TV didn't turn off, though the remote's battery had probably run out.

A black screen replaced the interrupted image. Sighing, she had thought it had gone back to the talk show, until green letters appeared. As if they were almost _dripping_ onto the blackness, like paint. The teen shuddered while reading them.

It wasn't anything disturbing yet, it simply read, '_PLEASE PAY ATTENTION TO THE FOLLOWING MESSAGE_'. It was bold and considerably shaky, and she _did_ pay attention, watching with wide eyes. The letters faded away and more soon came, this time reading, '_TAKE SHELTER IMMEDIATELY. THE END IS NEAR. TAKE SHELTER IMMEDIATELY_'.

"Shit," Luka said under her breath, stepping away slowly.

The letters stayed for about ten seconds, then a picture of a monarch butterfly flashed for only a moment, but long enough to realise what it was. The blackness turned to an eerie, glowing, neon green, and went back to the talk show from earlier, as if nothing had happened.

Shaking her head, the teenager slumped onto the couch, eyes still glued to the screen. The volume had returned to what had been previously set, and after pressing the power button again, the TV switched off normally.

So what was that? Some kind of sick joke? Most likely, everything was becoming ruined these days. Most of the kids at her school did drugs and partied regularly. It was crazy, there were barely any decent people left. Maybe this interruption was no big deal after all.

Although, it sure had creeped her out. How on earth did they get this playing over a program? And had it interrupted every channel? There was a chance it would appear again later, but no way of finding out exactly when. Then again, maybe the guys actually running the TV programs were drunk or simply bored and decided to scare everyone for a laugh. That was annoying, because Luka didn't know how she'd manage sleeping tonight. There was absolutely no way she would rid it of her mind in time.

Worse, exams were coming up. This would be a distraction.

Her mother called from upstairs, signalling the time. She looked at the clock. 11:14 PM. Well, the time certainly _had_ passed quickly. All she could do was probably stay awake all night, sleep didn't seem like an available option.

After she'd done her teeth and changed, Luka flipped open her cell phone and started playing games. At school, that killed time at a reasonable pace, so it should do the same now. Obviously, the message was still clear in her mind, yet she tried focusing on getting past the level she was on. Hopefully she'd beat her high score, with how late she'd be staying up.

Pulling an all-nighter seemed easy, but not even past two o'clock, she'd had fallen asleep, her phone still on and flashing underneath the covers.

**x**

"Did you see that screwed up notice last night?" Gumi's shrill laughter rang through the entire hallway. "Man, what a joke. Someone must have had a good time scaring everybody shitless."

Luka was busy putting books into her locker, until she saw Gumi, the class's most popular girl, discussing the report from the previous night. Luka was groggy because of her awful sleep, yet she was feeling well enough to get through the day. She'd almost thought last night was a dream, until she saw it on the first page of the morning newspaper. Nobody knew what it was, and nobody at the TV station could find it again, though some guy had recorded the scene with his phone and sent the clips in.

Luka was hoping someone would say something about the message, but none of her friends were in her morning classes so far. Moreover, speaking with Gumi didn't sound nice. That girl was far too full of herself to even say hello to anyone besides her followers.

Most would expect such a popular girl to be wearing tight clothes or something; however Gumi had said that look was way too overused for her, and went around wearing the occasional suit and tie if she felt like it. She was headstrong and boastful, and yet everyone loved her. Not that she was actually _mean_; it was her vanity that was the problem.

Luka turned away, in the hopes of finding someone she knew well before a shout stopped her. "Oi, Luka!"

Turning around, she saw Gumi beckoning for her to join them, wearing a yellow and orange dress, perhaps for a change. Hesitantly, Luka walked over as the small crowd parted, making more room. Grinning widely, Gumi gave her a friendly but strong punch on the shoulder. "Did _you_ see that notice on channel five?"

"Actually, yeah, I did."

"See, you guys? You need to get with it." Gumi said, sennding an incredulous smirk at her friends. "What did you think of it? Spooky, huh? And what was with the butterfly at the end? Pretty random, if you ask me."

Luka shrugged absent-mindedly. "It could be some sort of symbol representing whoever made the notice."

Gumi looked stunned. "That sounds legit! Never knew you were that smart. Way better than these guys, anyway." She jerked her thumb behind her head, pointing to her cronies, who looked a little offended. Gumi spun around and giggled. "Aw, only kidding. You know I love you."

"I'm gonna go and find my friends, now." Luka edged away and began walking towards the hallway's exit. Waving wildly at her, Gumi stood up on her tiptoes to see her properly. She wasn't very tall, needless to say.

"Bye, see you later!"

Half rolling her eyes, Luka quickened her pace and as soon as she reached the large canteen, scanned the room for anyone she knew. Break had started a minute ago, normally they were out early and hovered around a table. True enough, she saw Miku, her teal-haired diva friend, and the Kagamine twins, Rin and Len. They were all close with each other, so Luka ran to join them, giving them a wave. Rin was first spotting her, waving in return and nudging her brother to wave too. She was greeted warmly, with a wide grin from Miku.

"Hey, how are you?" she said warmly. Her blue eyes trailed down from Luka's face, her grin turning into a smirk. "Oh, taking up the Goth look?"

The pink-haired teen blushed. She was wearing mostly black, besides from her gold leggings and stripes over her jacket. "All my other clothes are in the wash. Your teasing gets out of hand, sometimes."

A moment passed before the two burst out laughing, holding onto each other while the twins looked confused. They waited until the two teens stopped, looking a little nervous. Rin spoke first, "Anyway, we were discussing this strange thing we saw on television last night. There was a weird message that interrupted a talk show we saw whilst flicking through the channels."

Luka's face changed to a more serious expression. "I saw that, too. My TV wouldn't turn off, I barely slept."

"Didn't you say you thought it was only on one channel?" Miku asked.

"We're not sure..." Len said. "The TV wouldn't turn off or switch over while the message was showing for us, either. It disturbed us, especially the end. The butterfly wasn't really necessary, was it? It seemed a bit pointless to us."

"Gumi and I discussed it just now. I suggested it was a symbol for representing whoever made it."

Miku eventually sighed. "I never saw it, this happened when I was taking a last-minute shower. It's kinda irritating, since this whole thing sounds exciting."

The twins laughed in sync. "You're lucky, it was hard recovering afterwards."

The rest of the conversation drifted off to what they got up to besides the interruption message. Talking about something so weird was killing the mood, so Miku went back to her jokes and teasing, making the other three laugh and make ones of their own. No one else appeared, despite it being break and the whole school was free to wander.

Luka had expected Kaito to arrive, but he didn't. He was around two years older than her, almost 18, which meant he probably had extra exams running all day. The same went for Meiko, his other friend who usually stuck by his side for most of the time. Luka's other friends, though not quite as close, were most likely doing their own thing. They'd grown apart over the new year, which was understandable. Life was always changing.

Luka's gaze wandered around the room, finally resting on the window nearby. It wasn't anything magnificent, simply a large, tall piece of glass with ugly, broken frames which were plastered with gum and dirt. The school was a wreck, and the teacher's were way too lazy to do anything about it. Luka continued staring, before noticing a monarch butterfly resting on the ledge outside.

Her heart pace quickened. It was the same kind of butterfly from the message at the end. Its meaning was unknown, as well as scary.

This butterfly in particular looked... strange. There wasn't much too it, besides from its wings being oddly tinted green. It twitched weakly every second or so, though even for such a tiny creature, Luka saw something wrong with it. An infection originating at a poisonous plant, perhaps.

A woman's scream came from outside. This time, Miku, Rin and Len heard it as well, whipping around to face the window. It was too high to look out of, making listening the only option. After several seconds of nothing, Rin let out a scared whimper. "What was that?"

Miku raised her hand, beckoning silence, which was followed by a long groan of someone in pain. It was a man, by the sounds of it, and shortly afterwards, wracks and sobs could be heard. Maybe something had fallen and hit him on the head? The woman that had screamed seconds before could have been surprised by it, that's all.

"I think we should check it out." Len whispered, taking a step backwards.

"No, anything could be happening, moron!" Miku hissed, yanking his sleeve. "Stay here until something happe—"

The school announcer came on, buzzing with static. Even worse, the person speaking sounded terrified.

"_This is an emergency. S-students, please return to the school, an-and please refrain from going outside! If one of you is feeling sick, then don't go near..._"

The last few words were merged with a groan, the same as the one they had heard outside. There were several clatters of chairs falling over, muffled gargles and thumps. Another man gasped in the background, followed by another chair collapsing before the static cut the announcement off completely, which triggered the loud wails of the fire alarm. Everyone in the room silenced, staring up at the ceiling with open mouths. Luka felt Miku grip her arm tightly, and Rin and Len exchanged looks.

A screech erupted from a crowd of girls nearby, causing the entire room to break out in chaos. The group watched as people shoved others aside, all scrambling for the door. At least five students tripped and fell to the mercy of the stampede racing towards the exit, and one punched another for a spot at the lead. In a few seconds, the room was cleared, leaving the four alone and scared.

"Did the announcer die?" Rin said, trembling violently as she spoke, clinging onto her brother.

"It sounded like what we heard outside!" Miku added.

With a frown, Luka grabbed several chairs and piled them on top of each other, pushing them against the wall below the window. As soon as she clambered to the top, she looked out of the glass to the concrete yard below.

The butterfly was gone, but the scene of the woman screaming and the man groaning was still present. Two bodies lay crumpled on the ground, most likely dead by how still they were. That was when Luka caught sight of their faces. They were deathly pale, almost _green_, their eyes sunken into their heads. Their limbs were twisted around into impossible angles, and if their clothes were transparent, Luka wouldn't be surprised if they were already rotting away.

Nervously looking around, Miku began humming to herself quietly. "Do you see anything? Like, what happened?"

Luka was silent as she climbed down, her bangs covering her eyes solemnly. "Yeah, the two people we heard look dead."

"'Look' dead?"

"I can't really tell. They don't seem like they're breathing. They look _really_ ill, their skin was pale and their eyes were sinking into their heads."

Moaning and covering her stomach, Miku turned away. "God, that's gross... Seriously?"

"We should get out of here. It may be a contagious illness," said Len, pointing at the emergency fire exit door. "Let's take another exit, just in case the main entrance is jammed."

Nodding, the four went faster with Miku in front. The hallways were empty, besides from scattered books and schoolbags across the floor. It wasn't so easy picking their way through them, including the obnoxious howls of the fire alarm which ceased to quiet. Eventually, they reached outside, but it wasn't like they were expecting.

The yard was littered with staggering students, all looking like the man and the woman Luka had seen outside. Their faces were pale, their eyes sunken and they looked extremely unhealthy. A swarm on insects, mainly butterflies and moths, fluttered around, also appearing weak and slightly green. A yellowish powder also floated in the air, quite low to the ground.

The group stared before dashing inside, slamming the door behind them. Rin had begun crying while Len and Miku shuddered intensely. Luka's physical signs of shock weren't as bad, though her eyes were wide with horror.

"Damn," Miku panted between breaths. "Is this some bad case of hay fever or what?"

"They look like zombies." Len noted. The three girls agreed immediately.

"What do we do? Getting out of here is our priority, so should we go around the back?"

Luka nodded. "Right, someone needs to keep an eye behind us, if something sneaks up."

Len volunteered as he gently rubbed Rin on the back. "Okay, but what do we do once we get outside? Our house is near the school; we should head there and look for some information about what's going on. Our parents are at work, still, I have a cell phone and keys. We should be fine if we get there and lock the doors and windows."

Everyone was pleased with the idea, and with Miku still in the lead and Len at the end, they hurriedly retreated and made their way to the rear end of the building. More items got in their way, but it was a lot less than before. Rin's crying had calmed, and the terror slowly drained away. Of course, remaining alert was necessary for when attackers or other students appeared. It looked like everybody had gotten outside, so Len could drop his guard every now and again. It was simply unfortunate the school was a large one, with around 1000 students.

However, as Len had mentioned, their house wasn't far away. In ten minutes, they would be safe with food, water, and hopefully access to any information via the TV or the radio. It was true everything had been fine minutes ago, and it was disturbing that the broadcast interruption's warning looked to be real.

Luka knew they'd be okay, this only needed a bit of effort.

**x**

**x .:: End of Chapter 1 ::. x**


	2. Virus With No Cure

**x .:: Chapter 2 ~ Virus With No Cure ::. x**

**x**

Getting out of the school wasn't much of a problem after all. Nobody had thought of leaving through the back exit, which made it relatively easy for the group to reach the parking lot. There wasn't anybody outside, and that meant there was no need to worry about being attacked. The insects and dust were scarce, too. Luckily, Rin had managed to stop crying, and the other three had calmed considerably. It was only a matter of reaching the twins' house.

Miku sighed heavily, letting her arms flop down next to her sides. "Glad it's over. Now, where do we go from here?"

As soon as he was done looking around, Len got everyone's attention by pointing at the small forest which lead to the open streets. "Looks like we have to cut through the trees. Our house is down the next street, so I'd say it'll take around ten minutes to get there. Possibly less, if we hurry."

"Great. Are we all ready?" Miku said as she surveyed everyone, making sure she was pleased before spinning on her heel. "Let's go."

"Hey, guys."

The four stopped and turned around. Grinning sheepishly and waggling her fingers in a little wave, Gumi stood next to a fire exit door. Her dress was torn at the sleeve, and by the looks of it, a small bruise was forming on her left cheek. Even her hair was slightly disheveled, most likely from the stampede of frantic students trying to get outside. The strange thing was, Gumi was on her own, something weird for a girl so popular.

"Gumi?" Len arched an eyebrow in confusion.

Miku didn't seem pleased. "How did you get out here? Where are your friends?"

The green-haired teen shrugged, the grin remaining. "Dunno. They all ran for it when the alarm went off, and I guessed there'd be a lot of crowds out by the front. I was right, because I saw a bunch of dudes by the gates, they were all walking around like they were drunk. Their skin looked kinda gross, and there were tons of bugs in the air. Especially butterflies. Hey, the notice from last night is making sense! Is this a disease or something?"

Glancing at Miku for a second, Luka merely shrugged. "Obviously, we have no idea. We were going to go to Rin and Len's house, it's in the next street."

"Excellent! Off we go, then." Gumi clapped her hands excitedly and skipped off.

Luka felt Miku nudging her in the ribs, bringing her face in close. "Hear that? She just invited herself!" she whispered angrily. Luka simply had to laugh half-heartedly.

"I know, but we can't leave her here, either."

**x**

The walk took less time than expected, considering they'd ran most of the way. The streets were empty, besides from the school's front, which was still swarming with insects and wandering corpses. They'd reached the twins' house with no problems, and Len unlocked the door in a few swift movements.

Gumi was, unsurprisingly, the first to waltz through the door as if it were her house. "Hm, nice place you got here."

Even though slightly irritated by her rude behaviour, Luka couldn't help agreeing. It wasn't like the twins' home was big or fancy, however it _was_ modern and tidy, with no clutter or dirt anywhere. Now that she thought about it, she remembered Rin telling her their mother was slightly strict with cleanliness. Which was fine, since she had a feeling they'd be staying her for a while. At least until everything was sorted out, that is.

"Okay, let's take this in steps." Luka waited for everyone to gather in a circle in the living room. "I'm going to call this an emergency, since we don't know what's going on. In that case, we'll need as much water as we can before if it gets cut off. I'll take care of that, and someone should turn on the TV here and check the radio for any news. I suppose we can decide what to do once we get information. Everyone get it?"

Everybody nodded, besides from Gumi, who flopped down on the couch, flicking the TV power button on her way over. The screen immediately burst into life, bright pixels flashing across the dark walls. It was set on a random channel, but the words '_breaking news_' were in bold, red letters at the bottom, and a news reporter was yelling into a microphone at the top of her lungs.

Instead of Luka's plan, they all sat down to watch. In the background, people were tearing around, apparently breaking into a story and coming out with baskets full to the brim with food and medicine. Papers and random items flew around the sky, and several children were crying whilst being dragged away by their mothers. It was enough to say places beside the school were in utter confusion, as well.

The petrified news reporter had to keep from running to safety herself, instead clawing at her arms impatiently. "Please stay indoors, and don't let anybody inside your homes! Doctors and researches are trying desperately to search for an answer to this outburst, so remain patient!"

She screamed and ran off, the camera falling to the pavement at the same time.

"Turn over, we missed what she said before!" Rin shouted over the racket. "There's probably more news on this!"

Gumi switched over to the next channel, which was apparently the same news. After switching again, she came across another news channel, and luckily, it looked to be calmer and more properly presented. It was also just starting, as well.

A male news reporter sat at a table, papers in hand. "So far, none of us know what's happening. From recent studies, scientists have discovered a new virus found in flying insects. This virus spreads in yellow spores, entering through the nose and mouth. The symptoms are the following: rapid paleness of the skin, sunken eyes, feelings of nausea and dizziness, and loss of mind control."

The room fell silent, nobody daring to speak.

The report continued. "For the moment, scientists have no name for this, though they did find out that the first signs were first spotted in butterflies, including moths. It's extremely contagious and deadly within minutes, so people are strongly advised to stay in their homes, and keep all windows and doors shut. Ration any food, water and medicine, and above all, be careful."

"So the message was right..." Miku whispered, her eyes shadowed out. "How did they know this would happen?"

"Would we call this a zombie apocalypse?" Gumi burst out, not a hint of worry in her voice. The twins', including Miku, scowled at her stupid question. Luka answered with a sigh.

"Call it whatever you want. This isn't the time to act like that, Gumi."

Stamping her foot, Miku hissed, "Yeah, or we'll likely be forced to kick you out of the door!"

"You wouldn't dare!" Gumi placed a hand to her chest, feigning looking hurt. "You'd have to live with murder, you know."

Miku glowered as she stormed out of the room. "I'll get the water, since nobody else is moving, here."

The tension hung in the air, as well as the noise of pots and pans being filled up. Gumi had sprawled out on the couch, staring up at the ceiling, a bored expression on her face. The twins decided there would be no use trying to move her, so they set off to check the food supply and their medicine cabinet, leaving Luka on her own.

There wasn't anything to do in the house, so the first idea she thought of was phoning her parents. Her cell phone's battery was running out, and there was no charger. This had to be done quick, so Luka set the brightness down all the way to preserve the battery. Dialing her mother was hurriedly done, and she held the phone to her ear.

It rang a few times, then went on to the answer machine. Luka left a message, saying she was alright and where she was, and hung up miserably. She did the same with her dad, who also didn't pick up. After putting it away, Luka turned back to Gumi, "You gonna dial your parents?"

She flipped her hand dismissively. "Nah, don't have anything on me. They won't worry, they're most likely too busy saving their own skins."

"They don't sound very caring..."

Gumi laughed loudly. "I know. Doesn't matter, at least _I_ know I'm okay. So what's the worry? And if they're dead or something, then... I don't know what I'd do. Guess we'll just have to keep our cool, I suppose."

"You're pretty positive about this. Aren't you scared?"

"Not really. Dying isn't a big deal, it doesn't freak me out at all."

Luka wasn't sure whether to be impressed or not. What Gumi was saying was reckless, but then again, she was pretty brave at the same time.

Suddenly, Luka's phone rang. Everyone leapt up in their seat as she scrabbled at her pocket to answer. Maybe it was her parents, and they _were_ okay!

"Hello?"

"_Luka? Oh thank God, you're safe. Guys, Luka's alive!_"

The teen cocked an eyebrow. That definitely wasn't either of her parents. Her mouth dropped open when she realised it was Kaito.

"Kaito? Where are you?"

"_I'm at Gakupo's apartment, with him and Meiko. We managed to get out of the school around the side, since the front doors were jammed. We watched the news. Jeez, I can't believe this is really happening! Everything was fine this morning._"

Fiddling with her phone charm, Luka breathed out a small sigh. "Yeah. Well, I'm at Rin and Len's house, with them, Miku and Gumi. We've seen the news, too. I'm not sure if you know about this, but there was a broadcast interruption last night, which predicted this whole thing. It didn't exactly say it would be a virus, still, it did say we should all take cover as soon as we could. It showed a picture of a monarch butterfly at the end, though at the time, we didn't know what it meant."

There was a pause. "_I remember some kids talking about that when I got into my first class. I thought it was a stupid prank some idiot tried to pull to scare everybody._"

"So did we. At least we're all safe. How are your supplies? Do you have enough food with you?"

"_Uh..._" Kaito chuckled nervously. Not a good sign. "_Not exactly. Gakupo said his family hadn't gone shopping in a while. There's only enough to keep us going for two or three days, I guess. We don't have any medicine, either._"

Luka swore under her breath, shaking her head. What could they do now? Leaving them there with limited equipment wasn't an option, still, bringing them over here was dangerous. Gakupo's apartment wasn't close, meaning they had to walk for at least half an hour to get here. Besides, the twins' house was a little too small to support eight of them. They would more than likely have to cover any cracks or gaps in the walls with blankets, to keep the virus spores out. Who knew there wouldn't be any on the way here? Or right outside, even? It was too risky to attempt.

"Okay, the twins' house is too small for eight people, so I'm not sure you could come over here. And the streets could be extremely hazardous. Plagues like this can spread fast, you don't want to be infected."

"_...Then what do you think we should do?_"

"Maybe the best plan is to go somewhere nearer to you than here. Who lives the closest?"

She could hear several murmurs in the background, followed by louder mutters. Kaito returned shortly. "_Meiko said her house is half an hour away, but she isn't sure how many supplies she has. My house is miles from here, so we're pretty much stuck. What about you? Since there's five of you, your food's gonna run out faster._"

Luka grimaced. "Yeah, I realized that. Alright, since you can't really go anywhere, then I suppose all we can do is hang tight. The electricity's working fine, so keep the TV and radio on for any news. Anything happens, call me."

"_Got it. See ya._"

Hanging up, Luka turned to the other four, who looked at her, eager for news. "Kaito says he's with Gakupo and Meiko at Gakupo's apartment. They don't have many supplies, and they can't go anywhere. We're just going to wait for something."

"So we're sitting ducks while all of this shit's happening right outside?" Gumi piped up, lurching out of her seat. She looked a little less calm than she was only minutes ago.

Although she didn't like it either, Luka knew there wasn't anything to do until _something_ happened. A cure, supplies sent around to people, or hopefully, they'd be rescued and brought to a safer location, a shelter, as the broadcast interruption had said. Even though this chaos had started hardly a while ago, anything could happen. People had the power to riot, raid buildings, and start anti-government groups.

Len, who hadn't spoken a word since they'd arrived, exhaled noisily. "What are we supposed to do, Gumi? Go outside and find a cure ourselves? Find a shelter, which is probably miles away from here?" He glared at her. "Face it, we're ordinary people. We _can't_ do anything. If you're so desperate to do something, then find a way yourself."

Snorting and rolling her eyes, Gumi threw herself back down into a lying position and faced the wall, muttering curses under her breath. Miku chose that moment to walk into the room, wiping her hands down her skirt.

"I've filled up everything in the kitchen. We've got enough water for a while. It cut off half way through when I was filling the bathtub, so that's us done."

"Great. Kaito rang, he says he's with Meiko and Gakupo. They're safe." Luka explained. "I'm not sure about everyone else, though."

Miku let out a bark of laughter. "Well, more people should've gotten out alright. The school's huge, they couldn't have all been infected."

"Guess we'll see." Luka said, a skeptical tone in her voice. If the plague was as contagious as it was made out to be, then the school should have been contaminated much faster than regular schools. The bigger the size, the faster the spread. She wouldn't be surprised if the lot had died, besides from the people who had been off sick.

Meanwhile, the twins had sat down at a table, having barely said a few words each the whole time. It was true they weren't very talkative (besides from Rin in a bad mood, when she could really cheek someone), though normally they would say a little more. Rin was currently fiddling with the bow in her hair, while Len was trying to get the radio to work. Most of the channels were white noise, and the rest so far were still playing songs. He, sadly, had yet to find one with any extra information. Not that he expected any good news.

"Maybe I should try phoning Mom," Rin whispered, letting go of her bow. Len looked up from the radio, his eyes full of worry. He'd presumably been thinking the same thought. "You know, to see if he's okay..."

Her brother nodded. "Yeah, and Dad, too."

Managing a smile was difficult, yet Rin pulled through. Being strong was essential in this kind of situation, so she stood up and moved over to the house phone. As Luka's phone had done, it rang a few times, though instead of going through to the answering machine, a voice picked up.

Rin's squeals of delight brought Gumi jerking forwards, and also caused Miku and Luka to come running. "What, what is it?!" Miku asked.

"Mom's okay! She's with some of her colleagues, and she's stuck in her office. I don't think she can get home, but at least she's okay, right?"

Len sighed. "Thank God. Tell her about our condition, then."

The blonde turned away and spoke into the mouthpiece, absent mindedly twirling a strand of hair around her finger. The four listened to her as she explained their situation clearly, their amount of supplies and what the news had said. A few pauses were spread out as she waited for her mother to take in the story. Judging from the tone of voice from the other end, Rin's mother sounded terrified and even depressed. She would have done, really.

After a quick goodbye and an 'I love you', Rin hung up and hurriedly began to dial a number. "I'm going to check on Dad." she said. There was no answer this time.

"I'm sure he's fine." Luka reassured the blonde, who was starting to panic. "There's a high chance there's just a lot of calls going through to the police, that's all."

"Yeah, you're right." Rin put the phone down and slumped back into her seat.

At least there was some good news. Luka rolled it around in her head, sorting things mentally. Her own parents hadn't picked up, Rin and Len's mother had and their father hadn't, and Gumi didn't have her phone. As Miku hadn't done anything yet, it was most likely she hadn't her own either. Kaito, Gakupo and Meiko's position was unknown.

Really, they simply had to wait. And Luka hated feeling useless, too.

**x**

**x .:: End of Chapter ::. x**


	3. False Security

**x .:: Chapter 3 ~ False Security ::. x**

**x**

Miku was the first to awake the next morning, after Rin had accidentally slapped her in the face. Just their luck of having to sleep close together on the floor, she grumbled to herself. Groaning, she climbed to her feet and slowly trudged down the stairs. The house was dark, signalling the time to around five o'clock. It didn't really matter, Miku had no problem with getting up early.

The previous night had been spent organizing the house. For safety measures, Len had used the bathroom towels to block the cracks in the windows and the doors, keeping any spores out. Their food and water supply had been stored in the kitchen cupboards, divided into ration groups that could last at least two weeks. Yes, they would be hungry, but it was better than eating everything at once and not have any left. Obviously, they'd still have to go out and get more as soon as the rations had finished. If the local supermarkets had been wiped clean by other survivors, then their last choice would be to go out foraging in the woods for anything edible.

Now that everyone, except from Gumi, had helped arranged their things, they could relax for the time being. Miku paused for a moment. Where _was_ Gumi? Her teal eyes slid over to the empty couch where she had lain on yesterday, also finding the rest of the room to be empty. Panic rose in her chest and she frantically dashed to the kitchen, finding no one.

"Gumi?" she whispered loudly, poking her head around each door in sight. A tap on her shoulder sent her into hysterics.

The green-haired girl stood behind her, a white dressing gown over her clothes and her hair tied up. She placed a hand on her hip, almost sneering. "Whoa now, it's only me. No need to look so scared."

Rolling her eyes and letting her shoulders relax, Miku proceeded to sink onto the floor. "God, you almost gave me a heart attack. What are you doing up so early?"

"I got up around ten minutes ago to go to the bathroom, and I'm feeling too awake to sleep." Gumi said, calmly shrugging. A second later, her eyes narrowed and she lifted a finger, accusingly pointing it at Miku. "And what are _you_ doing up so early, huh? Don't act like I'm the one guilty here."

"Well, it's kind of uncomfortable up there. Rin hit me in her sleep and woke me up."

Gumi's attitude changed immediately, as she nodded understandably. "Oh, right. My brother used to do that kind of stuff to me a lot, too."

She turned and waltzed back to the living room, with Miku trailing behind her. The two sat down on the couch together, while Miku pondered whether to put the TV on or not. If there was anything, would it be the same news that they had seen already?

As she wondered, Gumi reached for the remote and turned it on without blinking, as she had done yesterday after the outbreak. Prismatic light glared across the room, blinding the two teens. The volume was at a low number, so they didn't have to worry about it waking anyone up.

As Miku had thought, the same news channel was still playing on repeat. The other channels weren't any different, and some didn't work at all. Instead of simply putting the remote down, Gumi continued to flick through constantly, a deadpan expression on her face.

"What are you doing?" Miku frowned at her. "You know there isn't anything else on."

Gumi shrugged, not really paying attention.

The TV unexpectedly faltered for a moment. Flickers danced across the room as the scene cut to somewhere different from where the reporter was giving the same information repeatedly. The two girls sat up, narrowing their eyes to focus better on the intense lighting. This time, it looked to be a larger building, perhaps a hall of some kind. A female reporter stood up, microphone in hand and, noticeably, looked a little nervous.

"Any survivors, please stay calm, we're sending out police squads to every house starting with central Tokyo."

A row of cops stood solemnly in the background, some of them fidgeting with gas masks. Presenters rushed back and forth, their panicky words lost in the uproar of cars and helicopters coming from outside. Even sheets of papers flew around widely, deeming the place as chaos. The reporter, after distracting herself for a moment, turned back to the camera and tried to smile.

"We're going to bring any survivors to safety shelters located on nearby islands. Some may have to be taken further north or south, though we promise safety!"

Delighted, Miku leapt forwards and clapped her hands together. "Hear that, Gumi? We're gonna be saved!"

"Yeah, I'm not deaf you know. I heard what they said perfectly fine." Gumi sat up and crossed her arms. "Although, will the police even get here? Tokyo isn't exactly a small city, after all. And what about Kaito? He's still trapped with Meiko and Gakupo."

"They'll find us all."

They fell into silence, ignoring the TV altogether. Miku took the time to take in the news. So they _were_ going to be rescued and brought to shelters, which would hopefully have an unlimited amount of food, water and medicine. Moreover, if they were lucky, they could meet up with their parents, or be given access to call them if they were in a different district. Meanwhile any scientists could properly research the virus without worrying about any residents trapped in their homes.

Yes, the future already looked bright.

**x**

There was a knock on the door.

Rin was the first to race out of the room, Len hot on her heels. The remaining three remained in the living room, subsequently packing a few rations into any bags lying around.

It was around 11:30 AM, and Miku had told everyone about the good news as soon as they had woken up, which, of course, made everyone elated. The police had given them a gas mask each, just in case of anything occurring on the way there. If there was room, the police had said they were to stay at a shelter on the nearest island, which wasn't too far from Tokyo itself.

Almost immediately, the five were taken and loaded into a black jeep (unfortunately Rin was forced to squeeze in between Len and Miku in the back), and barely had time to fasten their seatbelts before the police officer in the driver's seat sped off at a speed higher than the limit. Though in this circumstance, there wasn't really a limit anymore. All their supplies had been safely stored in the trunk, along with plenty of water that had been brought anyway in case of emergencies. The mood had instantly cheered, knowing they were on their way to safety. And, of course, the police were alerted about Kaito, Gakupo, and Meiko, and help had been sent their way.

Gumi, who had previously been examining her nails, finally broke the silence by rudely tapping the second officer on the shoulder, not even bothering to keep her volume at a normal level. "So, how long is this going to take? And how long are we gonna stay at these shelters?"

The officer irritably glared at her. "At least a couple of hours to reach the harbour where helicopters are waiting. From there, another few hours to reach our first possible location. And you need to stay under our watch until the virus has been safely contained and curable."

"But that could take _forever_!" Gumi complained, continuously prodding at the man's arm. He brushed her hand away, furiously trying to contain his anger.

"I'm not the one who makes these rules! Please, can you stay quiet for the journey? Once we get to the shelter you can make as much noise as you want!"

Sitting back down, Gumi folded her arms over her chest and turned to stare out of the window. Her face quickly adapted a bored expression, while the rest of them rolled their eyes at her childish behaviour. At least they were actually being rescued, instead of being left to slowly rot under the confinement of their own houses! Honestly, someone needed to slap some sense into her. Where on earth did she get her audacity from? Her popularity?

In the back, Miku felt herself drifting off. She hadn't expected a few hours of missed sleep would get to her much, yet it sure had taken a toll. Her eyes grew heavy as her head slumped forward. Rin, being next to her, was the first to notice this, and whispered to her gently. "Hey, Miku?"

"Hm?"

"You're falling asleep. Do you want me to wake you up later?" Rin asked, catching Len's attention, who simply leant forwards curiously. "Or I could keep you awake if you wanted."

Miku waved her hand tiredly, letting her eyes close fully. "Mhm, yeah, wake me up when we arrive." she mumbled, almost instantly nodded off. The twins turned to each other, attempting to spark a small conversation. As usual, they did, and began to talk about school even though they wouldn't have to worry about it for a long while.

On the other hand, Luka kept her gaze to the floor, miserably propping her chin up on her palm. Normally, many thoughts would only make her this unhappy, but it was the thought of her parents that made her like this. Her mother hadn't answered, and neither had her father. What if they were trapped in their work offices, or out on the streets where they were exposed to the plague? Or worse, what if they were already dead?

Rapidly, her heart leapt up to an alarming pace and she felt herself trembling. Tears stung at the corners of her eyes as she squeezed them shut, hoping to blink them away before anybody noticed. Thankfully, nobody did, as Miku was asleep, the twins were conversing and Gumi was staring out of the window. Maybe there wasn't a need to hide her feelings, anybody would be feeling upset for numerous reasons.

Yeah, Luka hoped to herself, lifting her head to gaze at the buildings whizzing past. Her parents could simply be having trouble with getting to cover, and even better, they could be at a shelter already. Thinking positively was probably the best option for her at the moment, even if it was hard with all the chaos around them. Not that she was already a happy person by default, yet she could attempt it. Besides, she hardly had to wait a few hours until she could have access to other phones, proper information and a reliable source of food. It was going to improve, even if there was some bumps along the way.

In fact, she was so busy daydreaming she didn't notice Gumi waving her hand across her face, whistling and calling her name. "Hey, Luka!" Gumi said in a weird voice, giggling at her own silliness. The pinkette glanced at her, partially glowering.

"I know this is all crazy, but am I the only one trying to ignore it? Come on, it's gonna work out for the best."

Luka turned back to the window, considering ignoring what Gumi had said, later deciding it would be immature to not respond. "I'm sure things will brighten up once we get to a shelter. And, if you must know, I was thinking about my mom and dad. I'm worried, that's all."

"Right, right," Gumi raised her hands, attempting to back up. "Sorry for bothering you. Maybe it's all getting to my head. Acting a little silly is just my way of coping with crap like this, I guess."

It seemed like a reasonable explanation, Luka thought. Everyone had his or her ways of coping with overwhelming times, and Gumi was no different. Lightening the mood was a good way to forget about the bad things, except people found it stupid if it was something so serious. Luka was mature, and couldn't find much humour in certain jokes. That didn't mean to say what Gumi was doing was wrong, even if she went a bit over the top. Perhaps it was good she was managing to stay so cheerful.

"No, it's fine." Luka half-smiled at her. "Sounds reasonable. We can talk about it once we arrive, okay?"

"Sure."

**x**

Around one hour had passed, and they had long entered a rural area. It was strange why they had chosen this path, although it had cleared later on as the main streets would possibly be blocked with traffic. True, the police had said this way was longer, yet it was much more convenient, and the chances of delay were unlikely.

"Damn, this is boring." Gumi muttered after the long silence. "Anyone want to play 'I-spy'?"

A loud groan sounded throughout the car.

"Okay," Apparently ignoring the complaints, Gumi began to scan the forest around them. "I spy with my little eye, something—"

One of the two cops screamed and slammed his foot down onto the breaks, swerving the jeep into a diagonal halt. The sudden lurch jolted Miku wide-awake with a squeal, while Rin and Len hung onto each other for support. Luka was thrust into the seat in front of her, yet somehow Gumi managed to stay upright.

"What the hell?" she spluttered, angrily unbuckling her seatbelt to lean over and yell at the driving officer. "Oi, what do you think you're doing? Trying to give me whiplash?!"

Instead of facing her, the police officer was staring ahead of him, eyes widened in horror and his hands glued to the steering wheel. Gumi followed his gaze and peered out of the windscreen, only to gasp. The rest of them also unbuckled their seatbelts to get a better look, soon wishing they hadn't.

Littering the entire road ahead of them, mangled, rotten green corpses stumbled around dizzily, many of them collapsing in shrunken heaps. An entire swarm of insects hovered above them in thousands, including the dusty spore clouds the news had mentioned. The amount of diseased people in their way was a number too high to count.

Len, seeing as he was at a better angle, turned around to look out of the back window. Corpses had gathered behind them as well, their sad eyes slowly shrinking away. "Behind us, too," he whispered. "We're trapped!"

"Stay in the car," the police officer in the passenger seat said, pressing a gas mask to his face. He swiftly grabbed hold of the pistol on his lap, opened the door, leapt out, and began to shoot the infected at a rapid, crazy pace. The second also got out a little more nervously, but managed.

The five teenagers watched solemnly as the infected's already melted brains were blown out of their heads, their limbs dismembered and their necks lopped off away from the rest of their bodies. Yet, more came and the insects were climbing higher up in numbers. Spores floated in every square centimeter of the sky, staining it a sickly yellow colour. Inside the jeep, everyone was terrified.

"There's too many of them!" Rin fearfully pointed out.

Even if it was painful to admit, she was right. Staggering zombie-like bodies were attacking the police officers, coming from all directions. It wasn't long before one evaded the frantic bullets zooming through the air to get in at a close enough range to sink its teeth into the nearest man's arm. He howled, dropping his pistol and kicked the corpse away. In his fright, his gas mask had slipped off, allowing the spores to seep into his nose and mouth.

Somehow, if signalled, the insect swarm dove down and fluttered over his head widely.

His arms waved around in a violent attempt to get them away, though he was tiny compared to the enormous mass in the air. Then, to his horror, the insects all clung to him, covering every inch until he was nothing but a trembling shape of miniscule grey, brown, green, and black bodies.

He then began to shrink, arising deafening clicks out of the exciting insects.

Everyone watched in frozen shock as the officer was _devoured_ alive by the bugs, which ferociously chewed away his clothing and flesh bit by bit. The spores didn't even have a chance to affect him, and neither did the rest of the infected. The second man, petrified, attempted to run away, before the insects turned on him next and attacked. In seconds, he too was nothing more than a few pieces of metal from his belt and shoes, including his pistol on the ground.

"F-fuck..." Gumi said, holding a hand to her mouth. Rin and Miku were already close to sobbing.

Luka was the first to act, signalling with her hands to duck down to avoid being spotted. The corpses, by themselves, were too weak to get into the jeep as they were decaying, and the insects apparently couldn't eat through metal, judging by what they had just witnessed. However, it was better to be safe than sorry.

"How long do we have to stay here?" Rin tearfully asked, rubbing her arm where it had knocked against something earlier. "What if they never go away?"

"They will." Miku replied as she wiped her wet eyes, watching the insects as they darted about. The occasional corpse wandered past, as well. "If not, then maybe we'll have to drive through them."

"You dumbass, that'll topple the jeep!" Gumi piped up, raising her voice to a dangerous level. She was immediately shushed by everyone else, which she responded to with a glare.

Waiting was the one option, at least for now. How long they'd actually have to wait was unknown, and obviously it couldn't be forever. Eventually they would starve to death, as the food wasn't in reach.

The minutes slowly dragged out to at least an hour, and by then everyone was beginning to feel cramped, hot, and horribly uncomfortable.

"I can't take this anymore." Len panted, wriggling around as he tried to get into a better posture. Something almost impossible while they were all crushed together, making his claustrophobia worse. "Please, can someone check to see if it's safe?"

Finally, Luka dared to peep over the bottom of the window.

To her surprise and joy, the insects had flown off, the spores had vanished, and the remaining infected corpses had collapsed, motionlessly piled on top of each other. The forest around them had quieted, the last sound remaining being the twitter of birds and the faint breeze moving the trees. Luka made sure the place was dead quiet before turning back to her friends.

"The insects are gone, so I think it _is_ safe."

Len had to stop himself from laughing out in happiness.

"You mean you're saying we should get out? Luka, did you _see_ what happened?" Rin referred back to the deceased cops, nodding towards their remains.

It wasn't true that Luka herself wasn't scared. There was always a chance the swarm could return and go for them, and they wouldn't have any protection. Half closing her cerulean eyes, Luka blew out a sigh. "Do you want to stay here and die of starvation or what? If we have any hope of survival, then we need to try and find a better shelter."

"And where can we go?" Miku cut in.

Luka paused to think about it. "Well, I know none of us are familiar with this forest. Still, we really can't stay in this jeep."

"Can't we drive our way out of here?" Gumi questioned, stretching her legs as she sat up in her seat.

Shaking her head, Luka also got up. "We wouldn't be able to get through the pile of bodies. As you said earlier, it could knock the jeep over. None of us can drive this thing properly, and if we somehow _did_ manage to get onto a clear road, there would be a high risk of crashing and killing ourselves. I think we should just take the supplies and go and find a place to stay somewhere else."

"Then, if something happens," Gumi said, "I'm blaming you for it."

"Sure, you can chew me out when I see you up there." Luka scoffed as she flicked her finger towards the sky.

The decision was made. Take the supplies, get into the forest, and look for a building to take shelter in. If there wasn't any buildings, then somewhere like a cave would have to do until they found someplace better.

Len and Luka, together, got out and opened the trunk as quietly as they could and took out the bags full of rations, water bottles, medicine, gas masks and other items such as blankets. It was light, so they didn't have to worry about the weight. They each carried a bag, much to Gumi's displeasure, and one at a time, crept around to the back of the jeep.

"Okay, do we have everything?" Luka made one last check before they even set a foot forwards. A quiet nod was enough to please her. Everyone was still pretty tense due to earlier, and Luka couldn't blame them at all. "Alright, let's go then, quickly."

Again, they were interrupted by a scream. But this was from Miku, this time.

They whirled around to see that a corpse had leapt up from a hiding spot just underneath the jeep, and currently had its teeth dug into Miku's right leg. Rin leapt back, terrified, while Len and Gumi were currently too stunned to move.

Without thinking, Luka raced forward to grab a gun that one of the officer's had dropped and shot the attacking zombie right between its eyes. Miku's leg was released, though not without a horribly large bite mark, chunks of muscle destroyed and ripped out, and a trail of blood running down to her foot. She had fallen to the ground, howling and clutching her wound in agony. In desperation, Gumi, as usual, was the first to cry out.

"Oh, fuck, now what do we do?!"

**x**

**x .:: End of Chapter ::. x**


	4. Any Port in a Storm

**x .:: Chapter 4 ~ Any Port in a Storm ::. x**

**x**

As Gumi paced up and down, throwing out each four-lettered word she could possibly think of, Luka knelt down next to Miku and examined her leg as calmly as she could. Up close, it was absolutely disgusting. A red ring of tooth marks, wrapped around almost all of her calf, had been vicious enough to tear the muscles right out into thick, stringy strands of flesh, and left glistening trails of blood staining the grass crimson beneath her.

In a frenzy, Luka dove for the first aid kid in the bag Rin was carrying and threw the contents onto the ground. Bandages, gauzes, syringes, and medicine bottles were all chucked into a pile as Luka scrambled for any instruction booklet, and to her dismay, finding none. What was she supposed to do without any help?

"Does anybody know what to do?" She stared at the three crowding around her, whose faces were blank.

After a moment went by without any answers, Luka chewed her nails out of habit as she turned back to Miku's wound. The bleeding was atrocious. If anything, it needed to be stopped immediately. As much as it had to be fully treated, they couldn't stay where they were among the piles of dead, infected bodies. They didn't know if there were any remaining spores or insects, while the forest would most likely be safer than where they were.

True, that was where you normally found bugs, but they would probably be in more densely populated places such as Tokyo, or just a simple town.

Miku began to squirm as warm tears dribbled down to her chin. "I'm going to turn... You guys need to get rid of me before I end up hurting you!" She fell onto her back, letting out a loud wail.

"No, you're not!" Growling, Luka eventually decided to only bandage Miku's wound for the time being, until they got some protection. The teal-haired girl winced and writhed a little as her leg was tightly wrapped in the white cloth, which soaked up the blood and would have to do the job of containing it for some time.

As soon as that was finished, Len offered to carry Miku, seeing as she couldn't possibly walk in her condition. Rin and Gumi were given extra bags to carry, as Len lifted Miku bridal-style, making sure her leg was in a comfortable position and nothing was in the way. Her crying had nearly stopped, with dried tears smeared across her cheeks and she was shaking considerably. At least she wasn't howling out in pain, as she was earlier.

"I don't think we should waste too much time here." Len mentioned, peering over his shoulder to the corpse that bit Miku. Its forlorn carcass lay curled up in a shrivelled heap. He could even see its blood changed to a greenish-black color, which was spewing out of its forehead like vomit. The reek, at this distance, was intoxicating.

Unsurprisingly, everyone agreed and practically raced off. Len stumbled, careful not to drop Miku, though went as fast as he could. The road and the jeep were left behind in a matter of seconds, and soon enough they were surrounded by dense shrubbery and trees. In fact, it was so dense the sky was almost invisible, blocking out close to all of the light. For a more spooky effect, there were no birds or animals as there would have normally been. The forest was dead itself, in a way.

A quiet whimper from Miku brought Len's attention to her. Her eyes were shadowed out by her bangs, but her lips were quivering. "I... I'm going to become one of them..."

"Dammit, Miku," Len hissed at her, bringing her to look at him. "Listen to me right here and now: You are _not_ going to turn!"

"But that's what happens! You get bitten and you're infected, no doubt about it! And it's too late to do anything about it!" Miku protested.

"Those are movies and books you're talking about, this is different! Your skin is still a normal color, you seem completely fine besides from your leg, and if you really were going to change from a bite wound, then you would've already died! The news said it spreads in _spores_!"

Despite Len's encouragements, Miku was still alarmed and couldn't stop shaking.

Twist upon turn, all they came across was more foliage. The random clearing appeared every now and again, but that was not what they were searching for.

And the group didn't stop moving until Len hadn't any air at all left in his lungs, exhausted from carrying Miku as well as struggling to keep up. The boy was never good at sports at the same time, seeing as he was slightly on the short side and didn't have long enough legs to run as fast as the other kids in his year. It was a triumph for him to be able to carry Miku, a girl two years older than him as well as several inches taller, and get this far at the same time.

He collapsed underneath the shade of a maple tree, but obviously not before placing Miku down. His sides heaved and his blond hair was plastered to his damp face. Miku looked at him guiltily, feeling bad about making him more tired.

"Sorry," She muttered to him, leaning back against the base of the tree.

"Not... your... fault..." Len gasped between heavy breaths. He smiled weakly, though went back to coughing and panting shortly afterwards. Miku glanced at everybody else. The other three were also having trouble breathing, and Rin was doubled over with her arms hugging her waist. She wasn't any good at sports, either. Well, none of them were, but you still run faster when you're in danger.

Luka cut through the tension, resting a hand on her heaving chest. "Is your leg feeling any worse?"

After she glanced at it, Miku shook her head. "It's throbbing a bit... But it's still the same, I guess."

"It'll be fine once we see to it properly." Luka tried to offer a smile, though Miku didn't respond to it. And, they quickly fell back into silence.

Nobody said a word for the next five minutes. Their energy was spent gaining their breath back and relaxing themselves. Gumi, Rin and Luka soon joined Len and Miku underneath the tree. Despite the tragedy going on around them, it wasn't such a bad day. The sun was high and warm, seeing as it could get cold around these parts. Perhaps it would have been enjoyable, if not for the plague and being stranded in the middle of a woodland.

Everybody seemed to be thinking the same thing, and grumbled moodily about it.

In her own mind, Luka had trailed back to what had occurred back at the jeep.

What had happened... She shuddered to think about it. The insects had literally eaten the police officers in mere seconds. Sure, hundreds of attacks by wasps and bees had been recorded, but none had ever _eaten_ a human before. What on earth had caused them to act so aggressively? And how did the virus start? Deformities in bacteria that had somehow spread, or perhaps even large amounts of pollution?

Well, Luka thought, things like this had happened before in the past, such as the Bubonic Plague. Nobody at the time knew how that had happened, so perhaps this shouldn't be recorded as a phenomenon, now that they had better equipment.

She was snapped out of her thoughts when, strangely, Rin was the first to recover. She stood up and gazed around, making the group peer at her curiously. Then, she began to wander away from them, turning her head in a weird way.

"Hey, where are you off to?" Gumi shouted over to her, raising her hand up to shield her eyes from the sun.

"I might be wrong, but... I think I can hear water."

Rin's answer sent everyone to their feet, while Miku only sat up straight with a wince. Of course, they had plenty of water with them already, but running water could mean lots of things. A house could easily be nearby, as it would be wise to build one next to a water source. Actually, anything would do, even if it was just a cave or something.

"Really? That's great! Guys, we should go!" Gumi waved her hand, and sprinted after the blonde.

Luka hastily caught up while Len resumed to carrying Miku, and they followed Rin back into the vegetation. She'd disappeared completely out of sight, but she was clumsy and made a racket as she picked her way through the plants.

This continued for a bit, until the crackling of twigs beneath feet and the sound of leaves being brushed aside ceased, and a small gasp from Rin made the four move faster. Did she find something important? Or, if their luck had run out, more insects? Gumi, being the one who always had to be first, burst out from the last of the trees and rushed to join Rin.

"Damn," Luka breathed as she arrived, Len and Miku following suit. "We were _this_ close to the sea?"

The other four didn't respond, too surprised to say anything.

The ocean was spread out only metres away from them, calm and blue. They had ended up standing on the edge of small cliff, above an apparently freshly tarred road. The running water Rin heard was coming from a pipe nearby. A harbour wasn't too far away either, but didn't seem to be active. The place was entirely scarce, besides from some old boats that looked like they could drift away at any second. But most importantly, there was several small cabins located before the edge of the water. And those could serve as decent protection for the time being, as they all realized.

Rin was nearly jumping up and down in excitement, currently wearing a huge grin on her face. "Look, shelter!"

"Should we go down there right now, then?" Gumi asked, facing Luka at the same time. As the pinkette went to nod her head, Len interrupted with a nervous wince tugging at his lips.

"Uh, I don't think we can." he said, pointing his finger below to where the cabins were. The girls gave him an odd stare, before noticing what he'd seen. At least 20 infected corpses were crowded around the back, now staggering plainly into view. Spore clouds revealed themselves at the same time, hovering over the water, and shortly afterwards started drifting into doors and through the cabins' windows. The teens' mouths dropped open in shock and disbelief.

"You're kidding." Gumi muttered miserably.

Miku cringed and let out a long groan, as Len gritted his teeth.

"What do we do now?" Rin whirled around, apparently beginning to lose her temper. Anybody would, really, if their discovery ended up useless and a possible threat to themselves. "Go back inside the forest again?"

Blocked for an answer, Luka snapped her head to her left, only to see more of the forest stretching out to a cliff further away. And to their right, past the harbour, was part of Tokyo. There was no other route to take, besides from the road beneath them. That, going left, led up to the cliff. At the top, there didn't seem to be anything interesting besides from a grey shape which looked somewhat like a building...

Wait, what?

Luka squinted, focusing all her concentration on the grey shape. It was impossible to tell the details from this distance, but it was _definitely_ a building. Happiness surged through her as she pointed to it, raising her voice above the argument stirring up behind her. "Hey, guys! Up there!"

Heads turned to her direction, and the bickering stopped.

"Is that a building?" Miku blinked.

"Duh!" Gumi rolled her eyes and scoffed. "Well, come on then. Let's go and check it out!"

**x**

Getting to the building wasn't as easy as it appeared. The road was at least two metres below them, and it took a lot of effort to get Miku down.

Luka was made to stand at the bottom with her arms ready to catch her, as Len sat on the edge and let go of her gently. Naturally, Miku had a slight fear that she could hit the floor, but Luka managed fine and caught her perfectly. Once they were all down, they gathered their supplies and raced towards the cliff by sticking as close to the wall as much as they could. Not that they expected any cars to sneak up behind them, though.

On the way up, they were required to stop a few times to regain energy, especially Len, who'd offered to carry Miku again. Luckily, there were no other difficulties, such as surprise attacks from insects. It had gone colder, but not enough to cause discomfort. By the time they'd eventually arrived, they were all tired and irritated.

And their annoyance got worse when they discovered the building was padlocked.

From the looks of it, Luka guessed it was a warehouse. It had a very flat roof, low, narrow windows, and a chain link fence stretching around it. She and Gumi, while the remaining three stood back, went up to the doors and glared at the heavy lock keeping them shut. It was rusty, and looked like it hadn't been touched in a long time, but held firm when Gumi rattled it and proceeded to pick at it.

"Maybe we could shoot it off?" Luka suggested before Gumi could get too vexed.

"That's probably not a good idea." Len cut in, placing Miku down beside their supplies. He strode over to the padlock and glanced at it. "The bullets will ricochet all over the place. I think we'll have to search for another way in."

"This day just keeps getting better..." Gumi sarcastically said, and stormed over to the side of the building to peer in through the windows.

"How about if we shoot the window, then?" Luka asked Len, who pondered the thought.

The male Kagamine nodded after a moment passed. "I think that'll be okay."

Everyone stood aside as Luka fumbled around the supply bags for one of the pistols. There were only about seven bullets left, and it took a moment for Luka to figure out how to reload the gun. Pulling the trigger wasn't as hard, and she hurriedly shot a small hole through the glass. Gumi proceeded to kick the rest of it to bits, and in the meantime Len went back to fetch Miku.

Luka slowly dragged herself through the window, careful not to scrape against any loose shards. The ground, luckily, was low and she was tall enough to see over the ledge from inside. Gumi insisted on climbing through herself, while Rin needed some assistance. Len was the last one in as soon as Miku had gotten down, and after setting their supplies aside, the group took a look around.

The warehouse was freezing and full of draughts, Luka was quick to note. Rows and rows of empty shelves took up most of the space, leaving the only places to walk constricted and small. It was apparent the place had been abandoned for quite some time, as an active warehouse would have had crates lining every shelf in sight. This one, however, was deserted. Many of the windows were cracked and were hard to peer through because of the filth lining them, and a lot of junk was spread out on the floor. Since it was so near the sea, it must've been used for storing goods collected at the harbour.

Luka scanned the area for a moment longer, and turned back to the other four. "So," she said, her voice echoing off the walls. "The first thing we should do is see to Miku's leg."

Miku seemed relieved, and nodded eagerly.

"But we still don't have any instructions," Rin pointed out. She was right, though, to be fair, they were _all_ in a state of panic back at the jeep. It would have been tough to concentrate, even with guidance.

"We can't just ignore it, either." Len replied.

Instead of worrying about the lack of instructions, Luka gathered up the first aid kit and ordered everyone to move away from the window, to be safe from anything outside.

As soon as they settled in a larger part of the warehouse, Luka poured the contents of the first aid kit onto the floor as Len helped her to organize them. The plasters were placed aside (seeing as they were useless in affecting the size of Miku's bite wound) and all the bandages and gauzes were put into a pile nearby. Rin and Gumi kept to themselves, though watched the process from a short distance away.

Firstly, Luka removed the bandages they hastily put on earlier. The wound was much more inflamed than it was before, the edges had reddened and swollen as a result. The muscle tissue that had been torn out was enough to unsettle Luka's stomach, so she was lucky she could hold the contents down. Len, on the other hand, was more disturbed and looked away with a barely audible moan.

Miku hadn't said anything about it being painful, but Luka could easily assume it hurt like hell.

Using some of their bottled water, she poured it to the bite and dabbed it with a cloth as gently as she could, though it didn't stop Miku from hissing at the pressure on her leg. When the strands of flesh were brushed away, and the small specks of dirt cleansed, Luka rummaged around for an antibiotic.

"Do you think that'll be safe?" Len asked, narrowing his eyes at the bottle Luka brought out.

"We can't risk an infection." Luka, after reading the directions on the bottle, poured the medicine into one of the syringes and injected it next to the bite wound. She wasn't sure if she was supposed to give the shot there, but the directions said to apply near the wound. Chances had to be taken sometimes, and besides, Miku wouldn't die from an antibiotic jab anyway.

She proceeded to bandage Miku's leg tightly, and relaxed when she finally finished. They'd probably have to change the bandages every so often, but it wasn't really much of issue as they had plenty.

The problem was, how long would they have to stay here?

**x**

**x .:: End of Chapter ::. x**


	5. Not Alone

**x .:: Chapter 5 ~ Not Alone ::. x**

**x**

A quiet thump cracked Luka's hazy eyes open.

Still half-asleep, she rolled her gaze over to her right, seeing nothing but darkness and the towering, empty shelves. Beside her, the twins, Miku and Gumi were completely crashed, so it couldn't have been them who had made a noise, unless they had shifted. They seemed to be in the same position Luka had last seen them in, anyway.

So, what had awoken her? Did she accidentally hit her head on the floor, or did she have a nightmare? Well, she couldn't remember anything like that happening...

And, despite the fact she was normally alert by nature, even the odd, shadowy shape slipping through the criss-cross patterns of the metal racks couldn't keep her awake. It was most likely, simply, a trick of her brain. As she'd heard before, sometimes the most rational of minds could play tricks in the dark.

Giving in to sleep once again wasn't a difficult task, and neither was forgetting all about what had just happened.

**x**

"Hey, what the hell is this?!"

Gumi's screams echoed through the entire warehouse, jolting the other four awake. It was, judging from the dim light outside, quite early in the morning, and it had taken them a while to get to finally nod off, anyway. They'd probably only gotten about five hours to sleep.

And why was Gumi up at such an hour? Did she get up to go to the bathroom again, as Miku had said she'd done the previous night? If that was the case, then she could have been a little more considerate of everybody else's rest.

Luka sat up tiredly, struggling to keep her eyes open as she scanned the room. At the far end, where the supplies were stored, she saw Gumi kneeling beside them. She was spitting out curses, occasionally throwing her arms up in the air. What on earth was she doing?

After telling the twins and Miku she would sort it out, the pinkette got to her feet and shuffled over, yawning and brushing her hair out of her eyes. "What's going on?"

"_This_ is what's going on, Luka!" Gumi thrust a bag into her arms, furiously gesturing to its contents. Despite it being early, Gumi was wide awake, gritting her teeth in anger.

In confusion, Luka peered inside the bag and frowned. She couldn't see anything wrong with it, which seemed to enrage Gumi all the more.

"Don't you see, you idiot? There's barely any food in here! Either the cops were lying about how much they had with them, or you lot decided to go against your 'ration rule' and take most of it for yourselves!"

"We wouldn't do something like that!" Luka argued, Gumi's loud voice fully awaking her.

Now that her vision had focused, she saw, indeed, the amount of food was very limited. All that was in there were around four packets of rations, a few tins and one bag of instant ramen. That was not nearly enough to match the police officer's description of what items they had brought. Luka scowled, before an odd smile formed on her face, and she leant in closer to Gumi. "And if someone here _did_ take anything, then it would probably be _you_. I wouldn't be surprised in the least if you admitted it."

That certainly increased Gumi's temper. Her expression gave that away, until she placed a hand on her hip and sighed. "That's stupid. And if I did, I'd never bring this much attention to myself. Tell you what, girlfriend, I'll even go out searching for more food to prove my innocence,"

"Oh, really?" Luka regained a more neutral look. "Okay, then you can start at a more reasonable time. Go back to sleep and we'll sort it out later."

**x**

Everyone was crestfallen at their lack of food, soon after Luka had told them when they had awoken. Now, the twins were thoughtfully discussing a reason for it, while Gumi was pouting in a corner, still angry over her discussion with Luka. Miku, all her energy gone, was still sleeping, and they had decided to let her wake up on her own.

"Maybe we accidentally left some in the jeep?" Rin suggested, interrupting Len's theory.

"We couldn't have, I remember we took everything!" he countered, shaking his head in disagreement. "The weird thing was, the bags felt pretty full when we carried them up here. Did we drop a few things or something?"

"A 'few' things? Almost all our food is missing. And even if that was the case, I would have heard them fall!"

Their bickering continued for a good five minutes before Gumi cried out in annoyance, got to her feet and stormed over to the arguing twins. She gripped both of their shoulders and moved her glare back and forth every few seconds. "Alright, we can figure this out later! Let's go out and find some more damn food! I already told Luka I would. Rin," She turned to the twin on her left, who blinked in surprise. "That means you're coming with me."

"Me?" Rin pointed to herself, looking completely lost. Gumi nodded. "Why?"

"Because your brother and Luka are taking care of Miku like good little medics," Both Len and Luka frowned at her. "And you and I have nothing to do here." She smiled sweetly and took hold of Rin's wrist. "We'll only be a little while."

Rin opened her mouth to object, but Gumi was already pulling her away. As soon as the door closed behind them, Luka's phone rang. It was a slight shock, seeing as it was low on battery the last time she had checked. It had to be almost gone by now. Was it her parents this time?

"_Yo, Luka!_" Came the overly cheerful voice from the other end.

She sighed. It wasn't, after all.

"Hey, Kaito. What's happening with you? Anything bad?"

"_Good news!_" Kaito said excitedly. Through the line, Luka could hear a lot of chattering in the background, along with heavy footsteps and the obnoxious blaring of a loudspeaker. "_I'm with Gakupo and Meiko at a shelter right now. The police found us at about 2 PM yesterday, and we managed to get a room. I don't think there's anything interesting happening, and there's still no more information on the disease. Enough of that, what about you guys? Are you safe?_"

They were at a shelter? A small twinge of jealousy coiled around in the teen's chest, making the corners of her lips turn down. If only _she_ was safe, for sure this time. No, Luka hurriedly told herself. This wasn't the time to be feeling envious _at all_. She swallowed and twiddled with a strand of her hair, brushing the ugly feelings away. "Um, not exactly. We were on our way to a shelter ourselves, earlier on than you were, but an outbreak stopped us from going any further."

There was a loud, almost dramatic gasp. "_Crap, are you okay?!_"

"More or less. Miku was bitten by one of the infected, and the mark is pretty vicious." Luka's eyes trailed over to Miku, who was resting her leg on one of the empty supply bags. Her eyes were half-shut, and her breathing was shallow. "At the moment, we're staying in a warehouse we found. It's abandoned, so we don't have to worry about anyone coming in. I'm just... concerned for Miku..."

"_Man..._" Kaito sighed, and broke off for a moment. "_You know what, I'll let the police know you're there. They can come and pick you up, alright?_" he finally said, after taking in the news. "_It might take a while, though all you've gotta do is stay there for a few days!_"

Luka smiled weakly. "Thanks, Kaito. I appreciate that. We'll be fine until then."

"_So... Should I leave you to it?_"

"Yeah, if you want to."

"_See you, then._"

"Bye, and take care."

The battery symbol was close to being completely empty, Luka noticed after she hung up. If it didn't go off now, then she wouldn't have to wait long at all. And neither of her parents had answered her message. Where could they be? Her mother always brought her phone to her job with her, and her father worked in an office, meaning the whole work building would be littered with phones.

Now that Gumi (and Rin) was gone, the warehouse was a lot more quieter. In the corner of the room, Len was taking off Miku's bandages and replacing them with fresh ones, occasionally wincing at the blood. He never did have a strong stomach, Luka smiled to herself.

Suddenly, her phone rang, _again_. Len looked up and cocked an eyebrow. "Is it Kaito again? He only called a minute ago!"

Luka shrugged cluelessly, and flipped the pink cover open. The caller ID wasn't Kaito's. Instead, it brought an overjoyed grin to Luka's face, and she rushed to answer it.

"Daddy!"

**x**

"I'm done here." Rin brushed the last of the berries into the spare container she had brought. The bushes in front of her were now completely clear, even if they weren't full from the start, to their disappointment. Fruit, such as a few apples, shortly accompanied them as Gumi tossed them in without any regards for bruising. The green-haired girl wiped her hands down her dress, smearing some dirt onto the bright orange fabric, and sighed in content.

"Guess that's us finished." Satisfied, she span around on her heel, apparently having no intention to help carry any of the bags back up. "Come on, then."

The female twin frowned, though went to sling them over her shoulder all the same. Someone had to be the adult one, and she couldn't allow herself to get distracted with little arguments about stupid things like that. Until, that is, she saw something that immediately caught her attention.

A green, and although well-camouflagued, shape stood out from in between the trees. From here, Rin guessed it was a tent of some sorts. Not the big, fancy ones campers would often use, but a little triangular one. What it was doing there, in the middle of a forest, Rin didn't know, though that didn't stop her from wandering up to it. She ignored Gumi's questions completely, and simply waited for her to catch up. To her annoyance, she received an elbow dug into her ribcage instead.

"What's the deal? Is there any reason why you didn't answer me?" she began, before she noticed the tent shortly after Rin had. With a frown, she crossed her arms and stood in front of it. "Wait, so somebody else is here as well as us?"

"Yeah, genius. You think animals sleep in tents?"

Gumi hissed a rude response through her teeth, and went to examine the tent's opening. It was zipped shut, so she scratched at the material with her fingernails instead. "Hello? Anyone home?"

No answer. The two girls waited another moment, and, to their dismay, there was still nothing. Rin was about to suggest there could be someone sleeping in there, though Gumi didn't seem to care at all for their privacy and unzipped the entrance flap. Inside, there was nothing but a load of... food rations. _Their_ food rations.

"And what," Gumi whispered, her face reddening in anger, "Is this?"

Rin was silent for a moment, though not long enough for Gumi to snap. "Well, at least we found them..."

"That's not it, Rin!" Gumi whirled around, boring her emerald eyes into the twin's blue ones. "Someone _stole_ our food! And you know what we're gonna do?" A grin crossed her lips, as she hit her fist into the palm of her other hand. "We're gonna wait here for the little rat. Then, we'll have them in pieces." she chuckled to herself.

And, as if on cue, a rustle from the bushes snapped the two girls heads up, just in time to see a tuft of white hair ducking down beneath the shrubs. It was shortly followed by a squeak of surprise, and Gumi didn't hesitate for a second to spring forwards and pounce on whoever was hiding.

"Wait!" Rin called out, but Gumi had already disappeared.

A loud, high-pitched shriek signalled that whoever had hidden was caught. There were several thumps and the sounds of leaves brushing together followed shortly. Hurriedly, Rin darted over to the commotion, ready to break up the fight Gumi had caused.

Gumi's muffled screams were mixed in with squeals of terror from the person pinned beneath her. She had them on their stomach, and was currently pounding on the side of her victim's head, blaring out the most vulgar insults possible, some of them making Rin flush in embarrassment.

Underneath, a boy of around 14 or 15 years of age was trying desperately to scramble away. His hair, as they had seen earlier, was a silvery white, too shiny and metallic to appear natural. A noticeable feature was an oddly shaped cowlick near the front of his head, nearly resembling the letter 'P'. His skin was pale, and he was wearing something that looked like a black and grey track suit. It was slightly torn and had several grass stains on it, especially on the knees and elbows.

He was currently flailing his arms and legs around, meanwhile making some pretty pathetic attempts to topple Gumi over.

"You here that, you bastard?" Gumi snarled into the boy's ear, her fingers full of his chalky hair. He wailed, raising his hands to cover his ears in terror. This only served to fire up Gumi's threats, unfortunately. "You're not gonna get away with stealing _our_ stuff!"

Rin gripped Gumi's arm and began to shove her off the boy's back. "I told you to wait, didn't I? Violence isn't going to solve anything!"

To Rin's success, Gumi lost her balance and collapsed onto her backside with a grunt. As she slowly sat up, the boy scrambled away, backing up against a tree. His chest rose and fell rapidly, and his entire body was trembling. Now that Rin could see his front, she looked up into his panic-filled eyes. To her surprise, she saw they were heterochromatic, the right eye was green and the left was blue. Another interesting feature, along with his oddly colored hair.

After Gumi had stood up and brushed the dust off her skirt, she glared at Rin and sniggered. "'Violence isn't going to solve anything'? What, did you purposely get that wrong? Silly girl, if you haven't already noticed," she gestured to the area around them, "A plague is running amok. I think it's time to stop acting so friendly, especially to strangers who steal our food."

The boy whimpered as Gumi glowered menacingly at him. Rin mentally rolled her eyes.

"You have a point. Still, I meant we could sort this out without having to hurt him. He's another survivor like us." She turned and went up to the boy, who cowered when she bent down with her hand offered out to him. "Hey," she said. "I'm Rin, and that's Gumi. Can you tell me what your name is?"

"I-i-it's Utatane P-piko..."

The kid's shaking had almost stopped, and with Gumi out of the way, he also seemed less tense. Slowly, he reached for Rin's outstretched hand and steadily got to his feet. Now that he was calmer, Rin took the opportunity to ask him about their missing supplies.

"So, I'm guessing you're the one who took our food?" Piko nodded hesitantly. In the background, Gumi snorted and muttered something under her breath. Rin ignored her and moved on to her next few questions. "Okay, and how did you do it? How did you know we were in the warehouse? Or, did you somehow take our food while we were wandering around here yesterday?"

"I-i saw you w-walk up to t-th-the warehouse... And I s-snuck in last ni-night. I'm sorry, I just want to get back to my f-friends! I d-don't know where they are, and th-they haven't c-come back fo-for me y-yet!" Before Piko could burst into tears, Rin interrupted him as soon as he had finished.

"You have friends out here?"

Sniffling, Piko nodded again. "Y-yeah, we g-got separated. I panicked a-a-and I didn't have anything t-to eat..."

Tears started to run down his cheeks, this time faster than the chance Rin had to stop them. Through the corner of her eye, she saw Gumi slap her hand to her forehead and sigh heavily. Piko had to keep wiping his eyes repeatedly, muttering a few, "I'm sorry"s through his blubbering. Even though she should be feeling annoyed with him, Rin tightened her grip around his hand and began to pull him away from the tree he was leaning against. Frowning, Gumi prodded at Rin's shoulder angrily.

"Where do you think you're taking this brat to, huh? Don't tell me you feel sorry for him!" A snicker escaped at the end of her sentence. Rin shoved her away and walked right past her, back towards the tent.

"He obviously can't stay out here on his own, so I'm taking him back to the warehouse. At least until his friends arrive."

"But what if they never come back?" Gumi protested, swerving around in front of the blonde. She shrugged and continued walking.

"That doesn't matter. We'll have to see what happens, don't we? Now, quit complaining about it, and help me carry the stuff back!"

Piko's crying eventually ceased, but Gumi's pissed off mood didn't go. Right after she'd found the thief, Rin had taken pity on the thieving bastard and had even stooped so low as to let him come back to the warehouse. A stupid move, in Gumi's own opinion. Honestly, she thought to herself. It was true, the plague had only started two days ago, yet she was sure everyone would have adapted to it by now. After all, she certainly had.

**x**

**x .:: End of Chapter ::. x**


	6. Surprises

**x .:: Chapter 6 ~ Surprises ::. x**

**x**

The walk back up didn't take as long as it had done yesterday. In about half an hour, Gumi, Rin and Piko had reached the warehouse safely and had been once again interrupted by Gumi before entering. Even though her temper had calmed considerably, she stopped suddenly in front of Piko and loomed above him.

"Now, you try anything funny in here and I'll thump you so hard you'll puke out your stomach." she said, a hint of a snarl in her voice.

After she was sure her blunt (and rather disgusting) warning had gotten through, she smirked at Piko's terrified whimper and spun on her heel and stalked off proudly.

Rin gave a reassuring glance at the white-haired boy and followed Gumi inside the broken window and through the narrow hallways.

"We're back!" Gumi kicked the doors open casually before Rin could open them herself. She strolled into the room, hands on her hips and nose high in the air, obviously trying to ignore the two behind her to keep her ego from going any lower than it was earlier. Green eyes slid around the room slowly, until she came to a stop and nodded to the supplies in her arms. "Well, I've got good news. We got our supplies back in more or less perfect condition, and we even caught the dumb moron who decided to—"

The sounds of depressed weeping cut her off. Right in the corner of the room, Luka was huddled next to Miku, with her arms wrapped around her legs and her head tucked tightly between her knees. Her body shuddered with each loud sob, and Len shuffled closer to her to keep her company. Miku was sitting in a similar position, though kept her bandaged leg stretched out in front of her to avoid leaning on it.

So, what the hell had happened?

Gumi blinked in surprise, before her eyebrows turned down in confusion. "Hey, hey, what's going on?"

Rin, still holding Piko's hand, moved around Gumi and walked right up to Luka, placing her free hand on the girl's shoulder. Meanwhile, Piko managed to break free of Rin's grasp and moved away silently, too shy to come any nearer.

"R-r-rin..." Luka cried, bringing her head up. Her face was tear-streaked, and her eyes were red and puffy. "M-my dad p-phoned... Oh G-god..."

Another small flood of water spilled down her chin and she quickly covered herself with her hands again, probably to hide her embarrassment. Rin knelt down on the floor in front of her, glancing at Len who merely looked back at her sadly.

Eventually, after managing to stop her sobbing, Luka wiped her wet eyes and held her breath for a moment. "H-he's alive. My dad's n-not hurt. He's at a s-shelter... s-somewhere i-in Nagoya..."

"Great, so what's the bad news?" Gumi asked a little too loudly. In response, Rin, Len and Miku shot her a nasty look, which said somewhere along the lines of, 'Stop being so insensitive!'

The pink-haired teen turned her gaze back to the floor. "He w-was crying too..."

She dropped her voice to the lowest, quietest tone possible, but it was loud enough for everyone to hear. Her hands trembled as her lips creaked slowly, trying hard to speak.

"Well... M-my mom works at a big office most of the time... I've been there a few times, i-it's like a m-maze. Since it's located in a dense part of T-tokyo, the spores could easily reach up to the top of the building, no matter how t-tall it was. A-a-and..." Luka stopped to brush away more tears that dripped into her mouth. "My mom couldn't find a way out in time... At least, that's what my dad thought. O-one of her coworkers told him that... she'd been i-infected..."

"So... that means... she's dead?" Rin whispered, jaw dropping slightly.

"My God." Gumi's eyes widened and she suddenly looked guilty about her rude demanding.

Luka broke down into a fit of wailing and collapsed onto her stomach, digging her fingernails into the tiled floor. Beside her, Len covered his face and Miku turned away solemnly, refusing to look anyone in the eye. Piko had backed off to stand next to the door and pressed himself tightly against it, obviously feeling too uncomfortable to watch the scene in front of him.

It had only been a few days, Rin clenched her fists as she thought to herself, and the plague was _really_ beginning to screw with them.

**x**

"So, you and your friends took shelter as soon as you saw the weird broadcast interruption on channel five?"

While Miku was still comforting the lamenting Luka in the far corner of the room, Rin had sat her brother and Gumi down to talk with Piko to pass the time, and to explain some things. It had taken a long time for Luka to calm down, and when she had, she, understandably, was not in the mood for speaking at all. The four remaining were sitting in a circle, staring at Piko intently. Now that he had stopped sniffling and Gumi had stopped threatening him, he looked a lot more appealing, even somewhat adorable in his own way.

And, as soon as Luka had recovered somewhat, she introduced herself to Piko briefly, along with Miku who offered him a small wave. It had made the situation less awkward, and they could discuss without feeling guilty about not comforting Luka.

The twins were sitting next to each other as usual, while Gumi was holding herself up with her arms and had stretched her legs out as far as they could go, not noticing that they were taking up a lot of room and were perhaps a little too close to Rin, but it wasn't if Gumi really cared about personal space. Piko had taken a seat opposite them, tucking his legs underneath his scrawny little frame while he placed his hands daintily on his lap. He certainly had taken quite a different impression, they were quick to note.

Glancing at Rin after her question, Piko nodded, but seemed a little troubled. "That's right. Most of us were against the idea, since we thought it was just some kind of weird prank, though Kiyoteru was adamant on the idea and we didn't have much of a choice besides from going along and obeying him."

Len frowned and was the first to cut in, "Kiyoteru? Who's that?"

"He's a teacher," Piko paused for a moment. "Well, he _was_. The school he worked at was shut down for some reason, but he insisted we sheltered there for some reason."

Gumi let out a bark of laughter, a wide smirk spread smugly across her face. "So, you mean to tell us that you hang out with your teacher?"

"He's not _my_ teacher!" Piko flushed bright red in embarrassment, waving his arms back and forth in dismissal. "He used to teach at a small elementary school in Tokyo. I... My older brother is pretty close with him, and we just formed a group with some other people we met. There's around 15 of us in total, and I'm one of the youngest out of us all."

"If that's the case, then how did you get separated? And how on earth did you wind up all the way out here? We're at least half a mile from Tokyo!" Len asked. His eyebrows were incredulously raised, and Rin seemed to share the same expression of slight confusion. After glancing at the twins, Gumi turned back to Piko, who drew in a sharp breath.

"The school got overrun by spores only a day after we'd arrived. We were forced to get out of the city, and we set up camp somewhere around here."

He was stopped by Len once again. "Isn't this place mostly forest? Where could you possibly stay?"

Murmurs rang through the group. It was true, everything besides from the warehouse and the infected harbour was simply nothing but green. Even if they hadn't explored much of it on foot, from the cliff top, you could easily see what was in the forest. Besides from a few clearings, there wasn't much to it at all. And further up, there was a barren highway littered with rotting corpses, either dead from the disease or crushed by cars while trying to escape any stray insect swarm. But, as Piko was apparently saying, what if there was something else there, hiding somewhere?

Piko made quick eye contact with Len after a silence passed. "I guess you're right about that," he said, "If you're referring to _above_ the ground."

Even Gumi sat up. The three exchanged puzzled looks before Piko spoke up again.

"Someone from our group was doing research on subways for a school project days before the plague outbreak began, so we knew where most of them were located. There are actually quite a lot of them around here, but I don't think anyone uses them anymore. We managed to get into a station on the outskirts of Tokyo, and one of the exits led out to the highway a little way behind the forest. We thought it would be safer under the cover of vegetation rather than out in the open."

"Subways... Why didn't we think of that?" Gumi turned to the twins accusingly. They simply rolled their eyes and stayed quiet, waiting for Piko to continue. He too, ignored Gumi and shrugged.

"And the reason I ended up here is because I went out looking for food, and I was attacked by a small swarm of insects that had come from over the highway. I panicked and ran off, and by the time I was sure I was safe, I had no idea where I was."

Rin gave an understanding nod of her head. "What happened afterwards? Were there any more insect swarms?"

"Well, the first thing I did was search around for shelter. Luckily, I'd brought my backpack with me that contained a small tent. I set it up as fast as I could, before I planned what was going to happen... And then you guys came."

Gumi snorted. "The best you could do was steal from us, huh?"

Piko looked away to conceal his flustered face while the twins scoffed at Gumi's comment, which she ignored.

Anyway, now that Piko's former site had been resolved, there wasn't really anything else to talk about. Their food was back in its place too, but they'd have to spent the next few days trying to cheer Luka up. Miku was already keeping her company, and she'd been grateful for that, but the news, unsurprisingly, had broken her heart. They all knew how hard it would be, and Miku and Gumi didn't even know about their parents' condition due to their lack of cell phones.

Everyone fell quiet. Gumi had resorted to checking her nails, Len was studying the floor, Rin was staring blankly at the wall while Piko moved his head to the side, taking an interest in Miku. His heterochromatic eyes trailed down to her bandaged leg and he frowned at it, and then hesitantly raised his hand to get someone's attention.

"What happened to her leg?" he whispered to the twins, after they had noticed him.

"You mean Miku? She was bitten by one of the infected," Len said. "before we got into the forest."

"And she hasn't caught the disease?" Piko's eyes widened in astonishment. The other three shrugged and shook their heads, perhaps also amazed. Then again, the news had only stated the infection spread in spores and insects. Maybe there wasn't anything to worry about at all.

Abruptly, Gumi stood up and left the group, making a beeline for the food supply. She plonked herself down, crossing her legs and began to rummage through the bags. Rin, Len and Piko watched as she brought out pretty much anything that caught her eye, such as a few tins, bread and anything else she could use to make a sandwich or something with. As she was opening one of the tins, she glanced up and frowned.

"You guys gonna watch me eat or are you gonna get something, too?"

Without waiting too long, Gumi was joined by the twins and Piko, but Luka and Miku remained seated. Luka's face was still pressed against her legs and Miku's hair was covering most of her own face. And, even if they were at a distance, it was obvious that there was something up.

"Hey, you guys?" Len called over.

Luka lifted her head to reveal red, puffy eyes and tear-streaked cheeks, but Miku didn't move. So, the male Kagamine simply took two shares of rations and brought them over for the two. With gratitude, Luka took hers and thanked him quietly. Len furrowed his eyebrows in concern and knelt down in front of the teal-haired girl.

"Miku? Are you feeling okay?"

Now that he was closer, Len could see her body was trembling, and her skin was turning pink. Her breath was shaky as she managed to whisper, "No..."

Rin and Piko stopped what they were doing and exchanged worried looks, while Gumi merely slid her eyes over to the side. Even Luka refrained from eating as she put a hand on her friend's shoulder.

"My leg," Miku wheezed, squeezing her eyes shut. "It hurts so much, and I have no idea why. My head feels like it's going to split into pieces."

Len unwrapped the bandages to take a look. One he immediately regretted, which showed through an obvious expression of disgust and shock. The two girls in front of him stared, fearfully waiting for him to explain.

"How... how could it be infected?!"

**x**

**x .:: End of Chapter ::. x**

* * *

**A/N:~ Okay, I don't want to write an author's note but I wanted to say something about my grammar. I noticed my errors of 'he/she said', where I put a capital letter which shouldn't be there. I fixed all of that in the earlier chapters and I also made the paragraphs more spread out, if anyone wants to go back and read it again. Otherwise, nothing has changed. It's just more correct and looks a lot neater now.**

**Also, apologies for the slightly late update. Hopefully the next chapter will be up sooner (and will be longer than this one).**


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